


How to Beat Sleeplessness

by MeganMoonlight



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Best Friends, Female Character of Color, Female Characters, Female Friendship, Food, Friendship, Gen, Insomnia, Post-Season/Series 01, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 05:04:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17016270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganMoonlight/pseuds/MeganMoonlight
Summary: Sylvia noticed that Michael had some problems falling asleep lately, so she decided to help her.





	How to Beat Sleeplessness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Umbralpilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umbralpilot/gifts).



Sylvia Tilly rarely had trouble falling asleep. As soon as her head touched a pillow and she closed her eyes, she usually fell asleep almost right away. However, she was a light sleeper and she often woke up if she felt like something was wrong, which was probably why she woke up one night feeling a little bit confused.

Sylvia opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times. Wondering what had woken her, she turned around slowly, and that was when she noticed that her roommate was awake.

Michael was lying on her back, like she usually did, so it was quite easy for Sylvia to notice that she wasn’t asleep. Michael was staring at the ceiling, breathing slowly. Sylvia wanted to sit up and ask her what was wrong, but when she did Michael just closed her eyes and turned to face the wall, making Sylvia frown.

Well, maybe it was nothing important. Sylvia wrapped the sheets tighter around herself and closed her eyes again, trying to relax.

The next two nights were similar. Sylvia would wake up in the middle of the night to find Michael awake. On the third sleepless night, when Sylvia woke up to some rustling in the room and found Michael staring at the ceiling again, she bit her lip and decided to do something about it. 

“Are you okay?” Sylvia asked quietly. Without waiting for Michael’s answer, she turned and adjusted her pillow so that she was facing her friend. “If you have problems falling asleep, Nurse Miyazawa can give you something for that. I heard Alia Harrington telling someone it worked when she was suffering from insomnia. Maybe you could try that, too?”

“I’m sorry,” Michael said, and Sylvia blinked, surprised. Before she could ask what for, Michael was speaking again. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Oh, you didn’t! I mean, okay, you kind of did, but it’s fine.” Sylvia tucked a few locks of hair behind her ear. “I’ve just noticed that you haven’t been sleeping much lately.”

“I’m… fine.” Michael sighed, never looking away from the ceiling, but Sylvia saw her grip tighten on the sheets slightly.

“Are you sure? After your shift you went to spar with Commander Webb, helped Stamets with his research, and still found time to look over Lieutenant Rhys’ newest tactical simulations. And that was only today. How are you not tired?” Sylvia sat up, fully awake now. “You know you can talk to me, right? That’s what friends are for.”

Sylvia thought it was kind of obvious what was keeping Michael awake. The _Discovery_ crew had gone through a lot after all: dealing with alternate universes, meeting Emperor Georgiou, Captain Lorca’s betrayal, Ash leaving… It was a lot.

“I’m fine. I talked to Doctor Mua already. She said that stressful situations can lead to insomnia and that it often resolves once the patient has time to process everything.” Michael sat up and crossed her legs, looking down at her hands. “I just don’t feel very tired. Logically, I know that my body needs regular sleep, but it doesn’t matter how much time I spend with my eyes closed. When I try to fall asleep, nothing happens.”

“Well, that sucks.” Sylvia sat up, wrapped her arms around her legs, and propped her chin on her knees. “Maybe you’re just thinking about it too hard? You know, sometimes it’s easier to fall asleep with background noise. Maybe we could try that?”

After setting the computer to play meditation music recommended to her by Rah’eal, Sylvia laid back down to think about what else could they do to help Michael with her problem. She tried to recall everything she remembered about falling asleep, and she didn’t even realize when she nodded off.

***

For the next few days Sylvia hatched a number of plans to help Michael sleep better. She lent her some of the driest, longest books she kept in their room, acquired more relaxation music, and, after three more days, resorted to bringing Michael some of her own favorite foods. Sylvia certainly always felt like taking a nap after eating them. And besides, comfort food was never a bad choice.

Sylvia was standing in line for the replicator, debating which foods to pick for supper. She already knew she would get some cocoa and warm buttered rolls, but that didn’t feel like enough. Then, she saw one of the security officers ordering a strange purple egg in a red sauce, and that made up her mind. 

“Computer, two plates of scrambled eggs with roasted tomatoes and bell peppers, four buttered rolls, and two glasses of cocoa.”

Sylvia was always a fan of breakfast foods – didn’t matter what time of the day it was – but scrambled eggs had a special place in her heart. 

Greeting Ensign Molina and Ensign Rause, who were standing behind her in the line, Sylvia took both plates and went straight to Michael, who was sitting at a table near the door. If Sylvia hadn’t known about Michael’s sleeping problems, she would never have guessed that the other woman was tired. She had no idea how Michael did that – managed to look collected even when she was sleep deprived.

“Here you go.” Sylvia put one plate in front of Michael. “Most people get sleepy after a good meal. Maybe that will help? This is one of my favorites.”

Michael looked at the plate, and for a while Sylvia thought she was going to tell her what she thought of the calories and nutritional content of the meal. But then Michael muttered a “thank you” and put the first forkful of egg into her mouth.

As it turned out, food and warm drinks didn’t do much to help Michael fall asleep, so Sylvia had to come up with something else. In the name of friendship, she decided to sacrifice her time to additional exercise, and even suggested adjusting their jogging routine slightly. Michael came up with a new route, almost doubling the usual distance they covered. But while it worked very well for Sylvia, making her more tired than ever, it failed to get Michael to sleep.

***

After five more days, during which Michael got less and less sleep, Sylvia officially became worried, and told Michael so.

“When ‘I’m not tired’ means ‘I feel like I can dance and jump for hours,’ that’s fine, but when it turns into ‘I haven’t slept for a week and still can’t fall asleep,’ then things are very, very scary.”

The next day, when Michael’s shift was about to start, Sylvia decided to walk her to the bridge. Just in case. So she was feeling extra protective of Michael lately; sue her. She was about to ask Michael how was she feeling when they saw Stamets walking towards them, looking a little bit… well, manic.

“Burnham, have you by any chance felt a little bit strange lately?” he asked Michael when he caught up with them. Michael frowned slightly, tilting her head.

“What do you mean?”

“Well…nausea, frequent headaches, dizziness, maybe insomnia? Or just feeling like you don’t know what to do with yourself?”

Sylvia opened her mouth, then closed it again. Wait. What did Stamets mean? And how did he know about Michael’s insomnia?

“Why?” Michael asked, and Stamets exhaled quietly, clearly uncomfortable.

“I found out that one of the fungi I was working on might have, well, affected people who were in the room when I was dissecting the specimen,” he said, licking his lips nervously. “A couple of ensigns who were with me then ended up in sickbay, and I remembered that you were in the lab as well. Doctor Pollard and her team came up with a treatment, so if you’re experiencing symptoms like that, go see her.” Before he turned around and walked away, Stamets looked at Sylvia briefly. “Oh, by the way Tilly, I’ve finished going through your essays on alternative defense systems. I’ll send you my comments after the shift.”

Smiling brightly, Sylvia thanked Stamets and turned to look at Michael. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go to Doctor Pollard! Tonight you’ll finally get some sleep!”

***

After her shift ended, Sylvia headed back to the room she shared with Michael to find out what Doctor Pollard had said. Sylvia carried some novels Airiam had leant her. Hopefully Michael wouldn’t need them anymore, but she had seemed interested in the titles Sylvia had mentioned Airiam was reading back when they had been brainstorming ways to help Michael fall asleep, so Sylvia thought Michael might want to read them anyway.

But when the door to their quarters slid open, Sylvia saw Michael sleeping peacefully in her bed, one hand resting on her stomach and the other holding the edge of the sheets. She looked calm, calmer than Sylvia had seen her lately.

Smiling, Sylvia put the books down on her bed, before leaving their quarters quietly, not wanting to wake up her friend. 

On the way to get something to eat, Sylvia contacted Saru to explain that Michael shouldn’t be woken up anytime soon. After the week she’d had, Michael definitely deserved at least ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first _Star Trek: Discovery_ fic, so I hope it's not too bad. I just really wanted to write something about Tilly and Burnham's frendship, because I love them.
> 
> This is also a shout-out to the background characters that we barely know anything about (which is why I wanted to mention them in the fic): Airiam, Engineer Harrington (whom I named Alia), Commander Webb, Lieutenant Rhys, Ensign Molina, Ensign Rause, Doctor Pollard, and [*THIS*](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/4/4f/Teal-haired_alien_Lethe.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20171027014224&path-prefix=en) wonderful person, whom I named Rah’eal.
> 
> I hope you'll like it. Happy Holidays!
> 
> And thanks to my beta, who helped me a lot!


End file.
